COURTHOUSE — A Philadelphia man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a summary offense of knowingly and illegally enrolling his daughter in a Lower Moreland elementary school and was ordered to pay more than $10,000 in restitution to the district..

Hamlet Garcia, 42, his wife Olesia, 34, and Olesia’s father, Grigori Sofitchouk, 54 of Lower Moreland, were brought to Montgomery County Court on charges of theft of services, although the charges were eventually dropped and replaced with the summary offense, which is found in the school code.

Hamlet Garcia and Sofitchouk were ordered to pay restitution of $10,752.81 to the Lower Moreland School District. The first $4,000 is to be paid within 48 hours of the sentence, and the remainder value is to be paid within 90 days. Hamlet Garcia and Sofitchouk are responsible for the payment together, not separately. They will also have to pay a $100 fine each and $600 for the costs of prosecution.

The charges against Olesia Garcia were dropped by prosecutors.

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Rather than charging the trio with theft of services, a felony, prosecutors lessened the charges to a summary offense of knowingly lying to a school.

Hamlet Garcia admitted in court that he broke the law.

He told the court that he acknowledged he unlawfully enrolled his daughter in the school district during the 2011-2012 school year while living in Philadelphia. After the proceeding, however, he told members of the media he does not believe he did anything wrong and that he made a sacrifice to avoid a bigger sentence.

“To achieve success you must always make sacrifice, and I think you all understand the sacrifice that I have done,” Garcia said.

Tuesday was initially scheduled for jury selection and opening arguments in the trial of the three. However, Common Pleas Judge Garrett Page left for the lunch break and asked prosecutors and defense attorneys to come up with some kind of deal to avoid a trial.

Had the Garcias been taken to trial and found guilty by a jury, they could have faced up to seven years in prison.

The criminal charges that were brought up against the three attracted national attention, including that of a former state senator from California, Gloria Romero, who flew from the West Coast to observe the trial.

“We have no such law in California that would put parents in prison for up to seven years,” Romero said.

Romero compared the charges against the Garcias and Sofitchouk to the story of “Les Miserables.”

“Where a father is sent to prison for years because he stole bread from his family,” Romero said. “In this case, a father, a wife, a father-in-law are charged with stealing an education.”

In the days leading up to the scheduled jury selection, Hamlet Garcia stated he would pay the money back and that it never should have come to making a deal before a criminal trial.

“A disagreement between the parents and the school always should be a civil matter, not a criminal matter,” Garcia said.

“There were discussions between the school district and the Garcias when this initially came to light. Its my understanding the Garcias refused to pay back any money,” Deputy District Attorney Steven Latzer said. “Today was a great day for Montgomery County, it was a great day for justice, it was a great day for everybody who pays school taxes.”

According to the affidavit of probable cause, in May 2012, members in the administration of the Lower Moreland School District contacted Lower Moreland detectives after conducting an investigation that a couple living in Philadelphia had been using an address in Lower Moreland so their daughter could attend elementary school in Lower Moreland.

Administration informed investigators that it costs the school $58.97 a day for the Garcia’s daughter to attend school in the district. For the year it cost the district $10,752.81.

The investigation revealed that the Garcias and Sofitchouk had been using Sofitchouk’s address in Lower Moreland.